EeBGuide Project

The European research project “EeBGuide” aims to develop metrics for the preparation of Life Cycle Assessment (LCA) studies for energy-efficient buildings and building products.

LCA is used to assess the environmental benefits of new technologies. The EeBGuide manuals and guidance will support LCA practitioners to obtain comparative results in their work.

This project is supported by the European Commission under the Environment (including climate change) Theme of the 7th Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development“.

If you would like to be updated about future developments on the project or let us know that you wish to take part in the consultation please contact us by sending an email at info@eebguide.eu.

Objectives of EeBGuide Project

This project aims to develop documents and instruments providing operational guidance for Life Cycle Assessment studies of the Energy Efficient Buildings Initiative.

It will contribute to “Transformation to Sustainable Societies in a Changing Environment” by paving the way for eco-innovation and eco-efficiency in terms of more energy efficient construction products and buildings, which, on its side, is an approach for the mitigation of climate change. As LCA is used as a tool for decision making, also the objectives of “providing systematic approaches for governance in a changing environment” and “implementing decisive knowledge for new applications” are addressed.

The overall concept of the project is supposed to ensure the achievement of the objectives. In addition, the concept is set to enable a strong involvement of all relevant stakeholders. These stakeholders are represented in the Expert Group, the Review Panel, and the public (refer to management structure page). Active involvement of interested groups is seen as the most appropriate method to motivate people to work on the topic of Life Cycle Assessment and its usage as a tool for sustainability assessment. The active participation of relevant stakeholders ensures that the developed guidelines will have a broad acceptance, further encouraging wide spread application. Thus, interactive participation is used to develop reasonable strategies and robust guidelines within the context of the scope to gain industry acceptance and to ensure the strategies are scientifically sound.

The expected outcomes of EeBGuide include:

A guidance document – based on the ILCD handbook – that is scientifically sound, industry accepted and quality assured (reviewed),

A website as a central information hub with public and restricted access areas linked to the ILCD Data Network.

The impacts of the EeBGuide project will be further specified in the following sections.

Strategic impact

The expected impacts of the project as formulated by the call are: “Increase in consistency and transparency of the LCA studies carried out on energy efficient buildings and, more in general, on all projects performed within the EeB PPP.” As described in the chapters above, the current project is structured and planned in a way to optimally generate these impacts by

Using a transparent participatory approach to collect important aspects and respective solution approaches for LCA studies carried out on energy efficient buildings and products,

Compiling the respective guidance document (EeBGuide) and reporting templates in a transparent and efficient way,

Ensuring a comprehensive dissemination and accessibility of the developed documents.

Part of thinkstep in the project

Work package 1 is being led by thinkstep

There are two key aspects of this work package. The first is the development of a website where documents, produced during the project, can be posted.

The second aspect of work package 1 is the consultation both of the expert group and the public consultation. The website will serve as the platform to enable efficient expert and public consultation procedures.

After the end of the project, the website is intended to continue serving as an info-hub for EeBGuide.